Stephan Useche / Staff Writer
Loans, debts and even grandma’s checks.
These are some of the consequences students are facing without summer pell grants.
Having congress cancel summer pell grants for 2012 hasn’t been a reclusive alteration; this has come hand in hand with a full 15 percent increase in tuition, making FIU raise $608.70 a year for a student taking 30 credits. It has also been stated by other reports that 1,110 FIU students will lose eligibility to financial aid and 1,500 student awards will be reduced.
These changes have left students with no other option but to seek out different ways to pay for their classes. The Summer Pell Grant cancellation for 2012 has affected students’ pockets and academics.
“I wanted to take two classes this summer, but that would have been $1000 and I can’t afford that, so I’m going to have to take 17 credits next fall,” said Emerald Nesbitt, psychology major.
“I’m paying, my mother is paying and my grandmother is paying,” Nesbitt said. “I work here at the computer lab, my mother works, and my grandmother doesn’t work, but she gets her check every month.”
Nesbitt is not the only one struggling; many other students have had to rely on loans to pay for summer classes, creating debts to pay after graduation.
Students like Rachel Georges, sophomore majoring in psychology, says that she’s going to have to “work real hard” to pay for the loan; however, she has a plan B.
“I’m planning on using the refund checks that I get for fall and spring to pay back the loan,” said Georges.
Although some students aren’t obtaining any financial aid for the summer, others are. The grants don’t cover full tuition, but they help pay for a portion of the amount.
Financial Aid Coordinator Jorge Leniv declined the request for the interview about new requirements and eligibility changes.
Students must be enrolled full-time during the summer in order to obtain the grant, but the award does not cover the entire cost. This jeopardizes their eligibility of acquiring full financial aid.
“For my summer classes right now I’m using the money financial aid granted me,” said Junior Fiorella Lopez, business major. “It was originally about $2200, but since I’m only taking three credits it covers about $700. So, I’m paying the remaining amount out of my pocket.”
According to Maureen Walter, instructor in the biology department, financial aid has become stricter.
“This summer I had to do something called academic plan,” said Walter.
According to the Office of Academic Planning and Accountability, the goal of an academic plan is “to improve the effectiveness and efficiency of University operations and the quality of student learning.”
This entails students having to meet with an academic adviser with an academic plan on which classes they will be taking and how they’re going to be taking it.
Walter also explains how there used to only be one kind of F, but now there’s something called “F zero.”
“You assign that F to a student who never attended class,” said Walter. “If they get an F zero, that goes back to financial aid and financial aid can demand the money, because in their mind, if you didn’t try to do the class and you fail, then in a sense it’s fraud.”
Junior Jimmy Pertil, biology major, had no choice but to take out a loan to pay for summer classes.
“I really don’t know how I’m going to pay for these loans,” said Pertil. “I have to pay for my car insurance, my cell phone bill and rent for my mother, so there are a lot difficulties.”
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